Darkness and Light - Chapter 1

This is the first chapter of a novel that I have been working on. It is about a young girl who shies away from making friends because she sees herself as different from everyone else. She sees herself as invisible. It is the first book in a series and deals with Werewolves and Vampires. The first book mainly deals with setting up the world that she lives in.
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Chapters:

The alarm clock had only been blaring for a few
seconds when a small hand darted out from under the blankets,
slamming down the snooze button silencing the grating music that
had suddenly filled the room. It was only after the snooze button
had been assaulted at least four times that the girl cocooned
under the blanket pulled the covers from over her face, revealing
a small pale girl with mousy blond hair. Squinting, she felt the
rays from the morning sun piercing her retinas like needles.
Aryel was not now or would probably never what anyone would call
a morning person.

Aryel pulled herself, groaning, from her warm comfy bed and
dragged herself sleepily in the direction of the bathroom as she
did every morning as she prepared for school.

For as long as Aryel could remember, she had always had a hard
time sleeping and when she did finally get to sleep, she always
had strange dreams that she never could quite recall when she
woke up. After the dream, she always had a vague recollection of
running or possibly being carried and a sense of panic. It seemed
to her like it was some sort of distant memory dredged up from
the recesses of her mind but of what she had no idea.

"Aryel?" Her mother asked as she entered into the kitchen, not
looking away from the television screen that was sitting on the
kitchen counter. "You go to school with a girl named Becca
Chalmers, don't you?"

Aryel had gone to school with Becca Chalmers for most of her
life. Becca, who was on the polar opposite of Aryel in terms of
social status, was one of the most popular girls at school. She
never had to eat lunch alone in the cafeteria like Ariel - who
didn't even merit a spot at the loser table. There was just
something about Becca that seemed to draw you in. Aryel wished
she could be more like Becca but she often felt that she might as
well be invisible for all the attention she got. Aryel honestly
thought that no one would even notice if she just stopped going
altogether. She supposed that the others would have nicknamed her
"The Invisible Girl" years ago if she was anything more than a
blip on their radars. Even the teacher could never remember her
name and had to look up her name on the seating chart.

"Yeah. Becca's in my grade. Why?" Aryel asked noticing that her
mother was still looking at the television screen. When she
looked she saw Becca's school picture splashed across the
screen.

"There were no witnesses to this grizzly attack," A reporter was
saying. "But there is speculation that Chalmers, a student at
Rancho Del Sol was attacked by some sort of as yet unidentified
animal." The announcer went on to describing "Chalmers' " as a
popular fourteen year old and Aryel watched in stunned silence at
the picture on the screen.

"Had Becca been attacked?" Aryel wondered as she listened in
confusion to the report. As Aryel kept watching she realized that
Becca hadn't jut been attacked, she had been savagely attacked.
It was only when she heard the announcer saying something about a
memorial service did it click in for Aryel that Becca had died.
Aryel had never known anyone her own age who had died before. Her
adoptive father had passed away when she was quite young and she
supposed that her birth parents were dead but she had no idea who
they were or who she was for that matter.

Becca and Aryel had never been friends. They hadn't really even
spoken more than a few words to each other over the years that
they had gone to school together but somehow Aryel felt a feeling
of loss. Some people seem to shine more than others. Becca was
one of those people. When she walked into a room, the atmosphere
changed somehow. It was as if electricity filled the air wherever
she happened to be. There really was something about her that
made her the complete opposite of Aryel.

"Maybe I should drive you to school?" Her mother suggested
nervously.

"Don't you have a house to show?" Aryel asked thinking that her
mother really shouldn't be allowed to watch the news -
ever.

Every time her mother watched the news she developed a new
phobia-du-jour and started hovering over Aryel. She understood
where it came from. Just after Aryel had been adopted, her
husband had been killed in a car accident. The loss had been a
lot for her mother to bear especially when it meant being left
alone with a small child. So Aryel understood why her mother was
anxious, but still it got annoying.

"You're right." Her mother nodded looking at the clock. "But I
want you to be careful."

"I promise not to talk to any strangers or go off with anyone
offering me candy." Aryel said sarcastically. Her mother gave her
a warning look. She never did have much of a sense of humor.
"Mom. I'll be fine. No one's gonna attack me. So don't worry."
Aryel said.

"How do you know that?" Her mother asked. That was something that
her mother had asked often. The truth is that no one knows when
something bad is going to happen to them. If they did they could
avoid the bad things and life would be easier. Aryel had a kind
of sixth sense about things. She knew that something was going to
happen the day her adoptive father had died. She was barely four
years old but she still remember being scolded by her mother that
day.

"Children who lie don't go to heaven. They stay in purgatory
forever and ever." He mother had told her when she had sent her
to her room. But Aryel hadn't lied she was telling the truth. She
learned a lesson that day that deeply impacted her life. Don't
speak.

Aryel wished that she could talk to her mother about how she knew
that nothing would happen to her but she knew that her mother
wouldn't understand.